Roman

“I thought for sure she’d gotten over her nervousness and settled in a little, but I swear that girl has been jumpier lately than when she first started here,” Xander muttered, shaking his head as I settled into the chair across his desk from him.

I leaned forward in my seat, narrowing my eyes at him as I growled, “She isn’t that bad.”

He held up his hands in a sign of surrender. “No need to jump to her defense, Thatcher. It’s not like I’m going to fire Jessa. She’s part of the Gray Security family.”

I relaxed again and flashed him a sly smile. “Plus, Calista would kick your ass if you did.”

“She’d be the only one who might succeed in that endeavor,” he snorted. “But we both know you’d be the first to try.”

I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow in question, acting like I didn’t understand the implication. I’d never been one to overly share personal information, and my time in the Army had only sharpened that instinct. It didn’t deter Xander, though.

“Try and deny it all you want, but the bigger they are...the harder they fall.”

I sank back in my chair and shook my head. “Like you can talk. You’re an inch taller than me.”

“You’re not going to hear me denying that I fell hard for my woman. I think you’ll find there’s no shame in that.” He lifted a folder off the top of the pile I’d brought into the office with me, and rifled through it. “If you’re going to stay on here permanently, then you might want to man up.”

I ignored the jab at my pride, knowing damn well that he was just trying to get a rise out of me so I’d admit to my interest in Jessa. Instead, I focused on the purpose of our meeting this morning—my one-month performance review. “If I stay on? Does that mean you’re not sure about your decision yet?”

“Nah, the one-month trial run was a formality more than anything else. I knew you were qualified before I interviewed you, and you’ve fit in well with the team since you’ve been here. The position is yours for as long as you want it.”

I felt a deep sense of relief that had more to do with the woman sitting in the receptionist’s chair than knowing I got to keep the job that I’d come to enjoy so much. If things hadn’t worked out with Xander, then I’d either have to hunt for another position in Atlanta or take the one I’d been offered in Chicago, working for an Army buddy of mine who’d started up his own security company several years ago. It was something I’d seriously considered, but my preference had been to stay in my hometown because it was familiar. Now it was to stay close to Jessa—as much of a pussy as it made me since I hadn’t even asked her out on a date yet.

Damn, my reaction to her had knocked me for a loop when I first saw her the day I’d come in for my interview. The tiny blonde packed a punch to my libido. When she blinked up at me with those innocent brown eyes, blushing like she had a direct line to the filthy thoughts running through my brain about her, I’d wanted nothing more than to skip my interview, toss her over my shoulder, and take her back to my new apartment. Since she’d barely been able to stammer out a hello and I hadn’t wanted to scare the shit out of her, I reigned in my caveman impulses and swore to take it slow with her. But I hadn’t considered that I’d make virtually no progress at all in a month’s time.

“I’ll take it.”

“Good,” Xander clipped out. “We have a potential new client coming in at ten o’clock who I’d like you to meet with. I have a meeting I need to head to, but Calista will be here if any issues pop up.”

“Will do.”

He lifted up a manila envelope to hand it to me. “Jessa must have gotten this mixed up with the folders I needed.”

I glanced down and noticed that it was addressed to her and already slit open at one end. Xander tilted the envelope as he handed it to me, and the contents spilled onto his desk. When what I was seeing registered, my entire world tipped on its axis.

“What the fuck?” I growled, snatching the photos off his desk. My blood pressure rose as I looked through them. They seemed innocent enough at first glance since they were shots of her going about her day but I didn’t like the idea of some guy taking pictures of Jessa when she didn’t know about it. Or even if she did.

One was of her crossing the street in front of the office. Another was of her sitting in the coffee shop down the street. A third was of her opening the front door to the house she shared with her grandmother. They were all taken from a distance, and they’d come to the office in an envelope addressed to her without a return address or postage.

Worst of all, there was a note on the back of the photo taken where she lived. It said that the sender was keeping his eye on her. “She’s got a stalker.”

I shoved the picture with the note at Xander so he could see what it said. “Fuck, you’re right. She does,” he agreed. “I don’t like that he knows where she lives and works.”

“It pisses me the fuck off,” I growled.

He picked the envelope up for a closer look. “Handwritten and addressed to Jessa. No postage and no return address. You know what that means.”

“He’s been in this building. Maybe even our offices.”

“Possibly even dropped it on her desk himself,” Xander added.

“Fucking A,” I gritted out, pacing back and forth while I tried to pull myself together. Every protective inside me had risen to the surface. This wasn’t some random client were talking about. It was Jessa. My woman.

I paused in front of him when Xander grabbed his phone and punched in a number. “Get me a copy of the security tapes for the last few days. The street, entrance, elevators, hallway in front of my office, front reception area, mail room,” he rattled off. “Everything you’ve got and I want them on my desk as fast as fucking possible.”

“I’ll want to see them, too,” I told him after he hung up.

He nodded. “Consider it done. Forget the new client meeting you were going to take. I want Jessa’s case to be your top priority.”

As if there was ever any question about it. Xander could have tried to assign another employee to her, and it wouldn’t have made the least bit of difference to me. I’d have just quit and taken care of her on my own. Her safety was my responsibility. “Of fucking course.”

“That’s what I thought,” he chuckled drily.

“You’ll want around the clock coverage on her, so I’ll assign a couple of teams to you as well.”

“Just one,” I corrected him. “We have a lot on our plates here already, and it would stretch our resources too thin.”

“Still able to use logic while your heart is involved. That right there is why there wasn’t a question about you working here permanently.”

I barely noticed the compliment; my mind focused on building a plan to keep Jessa safe. “I’m going to take her up to a cabin I own in Kentucky, and I’ll reach out to a guy I knew in the Army who has his own firm up in Chicago to ask him to send a team down as well.”

“It sucks that she’s got a stalker, but it’s not altogether horrible since it finally lit a much-needed fire under your ass.”

“Shut the fuck up,” I muttered as I stormed out of his office and headed straight for my woman. With her in danger, I couldn’t give her any more time before I made my move.